ordist(TC)

Syntax

ordist [ -nqbRhivwy ] -c name ... [ login@]host[:dest ]

Description

Options specific to the first Syntax form are:

-f distfile

Use the specified distfile.

-f

If distfile is ``'', the standard input is used.

Options specific to the second Syntax form:

-c

Forces ordist to interpret the remaining arguments as a small distfile.

   (name ...) -> [login@] host
   install [dest];

-d var=value

Define var to have value. The -d option defines or overrides variable definitions in the distfile. value can be the empty string, one name, or a list of names surrounded by parentheses and separated by tabs and/or spaces.

-m host

Limit which machines are to be updated. Multiple -m arguments can be given to limit updates to a subset of the hosts listed the distfile.

-n

Print the commands without executing them. This option is useful for debugging distfile.

-q

Quiet mode. Files that are being modified are normally printed on standard output. The -q option suppresses this.

-R

Remove extraneous files. If a directory is being updated, any files that exist on the remote host that do not exist in the master directory are removed. This is useful for maintaining truly identical copies of directories.

-h

Follow symbolic links. Copy the file that the link points to rather than the link itself. This has no effect on machines without symbolic links.

-i

Ignore unresolved links. ordist will normally try to maintain the link structure of files being transferred and warn the user if all the links cannot be found.

-v

Verify that the files are up to date on all the hosts. Any files that are out of date will be displayed but no files will be changed nor any mail sent.

-w

Whole mode. The whole filename is appended to the destination directory name. Normally, only the last component of a name is used when renaming files. This will preserve the directory structure of the files being copied instead of flattening the directory structure. For example, renaming a list of files such as ( dir1/f1 dir2/f2 ) to dir3 would create files dir3/dir1/f1 and dir3/dir2/f2 instead of dir3/f1 and dir3/f2.

-y

Younger mode. Files are normally updated if their mtime and size (see stat(S) ) disagree. The -y option causes ordist not to update files that are younger than the master copy. This can be used to prevent newer copies on other hosts from being replaced. A warning message is printed for files which are newer than the master copy.

-b

Binary comparison. Perform a binary comparison and update files if they differ rather than comparing dates and sizes.

   <variable name> `=' <name list>
   [label:]<source list> `->' <destination list> <command list>
   [label:]<source list> `::' <time_stamp file> <command list>

Labels are optional. They identify a command for partial updates.

Newlines, tabs, and blanks are only used as separators and are otherwise ignored. Comments begin with ``#'' and end with a newline.

Variables to be expanded begin with ``$'' followed by one character or a name enclosed in curly braces (see the examples at the end).

The source and destination lists have the following format:

<name> or `(' <zero or more names separated by white-space> `)'

The shell meta-characters [, ], {, }, , and ? are recognized and expanded (on the local host only) in the same way as csh(C). They can be escaped with a backslash. The ``~'' character is also expanded in the same way as csh(C) but is expanded separately on the local and destination hosts. When the -w option is used with a filename that begins with ``~'', everything except the home directory is appended to the destination name. File names which do not begin with ``/'' or ``~'' use the destination user's home directory as the root directory for the rest of the filename.

The command list consists of zero or more commands of the following format.

`install'	<options>	opt_dest_name `;'
`notify'	<name list>	`;'
`except'	<name list>	`;'
`except_pat'	<pattern list>	`;'
`special'	<name list>	string `;'

 `install'      <options>        opt_dest_name `;'
 `notify'       <name list>      `;'
 `except'       <name list>      `;'
 `except_pat'   <pattern list>   `;'
 `special'      <name list>      string `;'

The notify command mails the list of files updated (and any errors that may have occurred) to the listed names. If no ``@'' appears in the name, the destination host is appended to the name (for example, name1@host, name2@host, ... ).

The except command updates all of the files in the source list except for the files listed in name list. This is usually used to copy everything in a directory except certain files.

The except_pat command is like the except command except that pattern list is a list of regular expressions (see ed(C) for details). If one of the patterns matches some string within a filename, that file will be ignored. Note that since ``\'' is a quote character, it must be doubled to become part of the regular expression. Variables are expanded in pattern list but not shell file pattern matching characters. To include a ``$'', it must be escaped with ``\''.

The special command specifies sh(C) commands that are to be executed on the remote host after the file in name list is updated or installed. If the name list is omitted then the shell commands will be executed for every file updated or installed. The shell variable FILE is set to the current filename before executing the commands in string. string starts and ends with ``"'' and can cross multiple lines in distfile. Multiple commands to the shell should be separated by ``;''. Commands are executed in the user's home directory on the host being updated. The special command can be used to rebuild private databases, etc. after a program has been updated.

The following is a small example:

   HOSTS = ( matisse root@arpa )
   

   FILES = ( /bin /lib /usr/bin /usr/games
           /usr/include/{*.h,{stand,sys,vax*,pascal,machine}/*.h}
           /usr/lib /usr/man/man? /usr/ucb /usr/local/ordist )
   

   EXLIB = ( Mail.rc aliases aliases.dir aliases.pag crontab dshrc
           sendmail.cf sendmail.fc sendmail.hf sendmail.st uucp vfont )
   

   ${FILES} -> ${HOSTS}
           install -R ;
           except /usr/lib/${EXLIB} ;
           except /usr/games/lib ;
           special /usr/lib/sendmail "/usr/lib/sendmail -bz" ;
   

   srcs:
   /usr/src/bin -> arpa
           except_pat ( \\.o\$ /SCCS\$ ) ;
   

   IMAGEN = (ips dviimp catdvi)
   

   imagen:
   /usr/local/${IMAGEN} -> arpa
           install /usr/local/lib ;
           notify ralph ;
   

   ${FILES} :: stamp.cory
           notify root@cory ;

Diagnostics

Limitations

There is no easy way to have a special command executed after all files in a directory have been updated.

Variable expansion only works for name lists; there should be a general macro facility.

ordist aborts on files which have a negative mtime (before Jan 1, 1970).

There should be a `force' option to allow replacement of non-empty directories by regular files or symlinks. A means of updating file modes and owners of otherwise identical files is also needed.

Files

distfile | Distfile

input command file if -f option is not specified on command line

/tmp/ordist

temporary file for update lists

History

See also